Susan Hall
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Recent Articles:
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Guillaume Tell Magnificent at Caramoor Music
Grand opera is Truly Grand
By: - Jul 17th, 2011Guillaume Tell, which Will Crutchfield revealed a wonderful opera, is seldom performed. This production should whet appetites for a full court press soon. This grand opera is seldom performed. The singing roles make inordinate demands.
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Tryst by Karoline Leach at Irish Repertory Theater Theatre
Andrea Maulella in a Brilliant Turn
By: - Jul 13th, 2011From time immemorial, con men have exploited vulnerable women. In Karoline Leach's Tryst, marvelously staged in New York at the Irish Repertory Theater, the age old conundrum takes on new and frightening twists. Tryst takes place in the 1910 London of cobblestone streets and flickering street lamps
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Pinafore Docks at Caramoor Music
Will Crutchfield Conducts a Lively Production
By: - Jun 27th, 2011At Caramoor in Katonah, New York it is easy to see why Queen Victoria hated Pinafore and everyone else has always loved this operetta. Queen Victoria hated Gilbert and Sullivan. Despite their popularity, a fact that would have roused tyrants to ban these operettas, their performance thrived. Sullivan was knighted in 1883, but Gilbert, whose words were considered offensive to the Crown, would wait until 1907 for his knighthood.
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The New York Philharmonic Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen Music
Alan Opie Shines in the Doug Fitch Production
By: - Jun 24th, 2011Reaching out to new audiences, the New York Philharmonic is leading the way with semi-staged productions of opera. Visual pleasures abound. So do growing pains.
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Collegiate Chorale and Kelli O'Hara Featured in Recording Music
Knickerbocker Holiday Revived
By: - Jun 21st, 2011We reviewed that production at Alice Tully Hall. This recording will help make your summer sizzle.
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The Importance of Being Earnest at New York's Roundabout Theatre
Brian Bedford Directs and Stars Live in HD
By: - May 30th, 2011As fluffy and frolicky as The Importance of Being Earnest is, and for all the laughs and pleasure it delivers, this straight up version of the Wilde play leaves you also wondering what was being contained.
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The Green Monster, Yaz and the Babe in Art Fine Arts
Unique Assemblages Preserve Moments
By: - May 30th, 2011If the criterion of a work of art is that it moves us, the unusual sports moments preserved in frames at the Steuben Gallery in New York certainly meet the barre. We still don't know how a piece of the green monster is captured under glass.
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Front Page at the Timeline In Chicago Theatre
Rahm Emanuel Understands the Play Perfectly
By: - May 28th, 2011Tennessee Williams wrote that Front Page took the corset off American theater. The wit and humor of the play is still fresh today in the city of its setting. And elsewhere. A Chicago pol runs our country now. See on stage what President Obama learned at the machine's knee.
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The Flanders Quartet Enchants in New York Music
Miller Theatre of Columbia Presents Great Programs
By: - May 18th, 2011The Miller Theatre of Columbia Univeristy presented the Flanders Recorder Quartet, a superb group that presents music on the recorder. It was some enchanted evening.
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Natalie Dessay and the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Music
Maestro Fabio Luisi Conducts Masterfully
By: - May 16th, 2011A stunning musical afternoon was presented at Carnegie, in a wide-ranging program which included Donizetti and Berg. The cast augurs well for the future of music at the Metropolitan Opera.
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Ian Bostridge with Les Violons du Roy at Carnegie Music
Weaving a Magic Spell
By: - May 15th, 2011The baroque repertoire has never sounded as lively and present as it did in this concert by a great English tenor and the marvelous Violons du Roy under Bernard Labadie.
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Metropolitan Opera's Die Walkere This Saturday Music
The New Production Gleams
By: - May 12th, 2011Die Walkere arrives at the Mahalwe and Clark Theaters this Saturday at noon, a bit earlier than usual because you are getting five and a half hours of opera for your buck. The arrival of the Walkeres at the beginning of Act III, which still photographs can't capture accurately, is well worth the price of the ticket.
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David Daniels Thrills in Orfeo ed Euridice Music
Metropolitan Opera Revives Mark Morris Production
By: - May 06th, 2011Even if you only go to name the hundred characters from the past who sit in a amphitheater above the stage proceedings, this Mark Morris production, with counter tenor David Daniels singing Orfeo, is well worth a visit.
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Verdi's Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera Music
Zeljko Lucic Stars in the Title Role
By: - May 04th, 2011Verdi considered Rigoletto his greatest opera and in the hands of conductor Fabio Luisi and the singer Zeljko Lucic it is easy to see why. George Bernard Shaw, who didn't like anything, thought Verdi had burned the role of Rigoletto into the music. '
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Catherine Gallant Revives Isadora Duncan Dance
Modern Dance from the Beginning to Now
By: - Apr 25th, 2011Catherine Gallant is committed to preserving the work of Isadora Duncan, but she also presents cutting edge modern dance with a delightful touch. In a riveting program Gallant she introduced the music of young composer, Lisa Bielawa, a recent recipient of the Rome Prize.
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Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts in Denver Theatre
Bruce K. Sevy Directs Letts' Dark Comedy
By: - Apr 25th, 2011Tracy Letts brilliantly captures the fading world of the donut shop as he welcomes a new employee Uptown. Both almost lose everything as they spar with each other..
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Nottage's Ruined at the Denver Arts Center Theatre
A Brilliant Production Features Kim Staunton
By: - Apr 24th, 2011Nottage does not preach or offer easy answers in her 'witness' play about the ferocious abuse of women while wars over the precious minerals of the Congo are waged. "Ruined" is stunning theater driven by passion. More of our coverage of theatre in Denver.
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New York City Opera Channels Stephen Schwartz Music
Seance on a Wet Afternoon now an opera
By: - Apr 21st, 2011Lauren Flanigan is the perfect dramatic soprano to create the complex character of a medium in Stephen Schwartz's first opera based on Mark McShane's Seance on a Wet Afternoon.
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Muti and Chicago Symphony Storm Carnegie Music
The Battle for Berlioz is Joined
By: - Apr 18th, 2011No one shares his passion for music and its healing power more fully than conductor Riccardo Muti, back full force from health and accident problems earlier this year. A neighbor asked me how old the Maestro was, and then guessed 'forty.' May Muti bring us music for another four score and ten -- at least.
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Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera Music
Renee Fleming Enchants
By: - Apr 12th, 2011The HD broadcast of Capriccio will be screened nationwide on April 23rd. It is a delightful production of a Strauss opera and should not be missed.
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Levine Returns at Carnegie and Met Music
Maestro Masterful and More....
By: - Apr 11th, 2011Not only were the Maestro's great interpretative powers on display, but also a hopeful sense that he is now coping with whatever disability he has and will continue to conduct into the indefinite future. Evgeny Kissin, the brilliant Russian-born pianist, was backed up by the Levine in a great afternoon of music.
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Trouble at New York City Opera Music
2011-2012 Season Suspended
By: - Apr 08th, 2011The New York City Opera is a wonderful institution, providing an opportunity to mount worthy operas others won't or can't and introducing new talent of the highest order. But it can't fill a large house and perhaps needs a smaller home. Whatever the outcome, the Opera's survival is worth the effort.
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Metropolitan Opera HD April 9 Music
Le Comte Ory as Good as it Gets
By: - Apr 07th, 2011Three great acting singers, Joyce Di Donato, Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flores provide the most elevated operatic singing in a story as silly and fun as anything you've seen, including a threesome in bed singing trios.
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The Juilliard415 at Carnegie Hall Music
Dorothea Roschmann and David Daniels Perform Handel
By: - Apr 05th, 2011Not shy and retiring, Handel wrote that his own work was full of novelty and exquisiteness. He was right, and in the hands of these consummate performers, his music was simply delicious.
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Last Folio at the Museum of Jewish Heritage Photography
Yuri Dojc's Remarkable Photographs
By: - Mar 30th, 2011A personal journey undertaken by a high gifted photographer revealed not only people as living memorials, but the objects of a culture long thought buried and gone.
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